A small employment defense law firm based in Allen is one of two businesses that filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to stop the Dallas Paid Sick Leave Ordinance from going into effect this week.
The Hagan Law Group and ESI/Employee Solutions of Plano claim that the new City of Dallas ordinance illegally “extends regulatory power outside of its city limits” and thus violates the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights of freedom of association and Fourth Amendment rights prohibiting illegal searches and seizures.
The plaintiffs, which are represented by the conservative advocacy group Texas Public Policy Foundation of Austin, state that they have employees who work just enough hours in Dallas to be covered by the ordinance, which they claim gives them standing to bring the lawsuit.
Employee Solutions is a temporary staffing company based in Plano and has about 300 temp workers employed in the city of Dallas at any given time. ESI’s general counsel is Shelby Park Beshara.
The Hagan Law Group is led by John P. Hogan, a 1997 SMU Dedman School Law graduate who specializes in representing companies against employee claims of discrimination. The lawsuit states that Hagan has one employee working in the city of Dallas.
There is not much on the internet about the Hagan Law Group, the number of lawyers at the firm or its clients. In a LinkedIn article posted in December 2017, Hagan advises clients that “one way to avoid ‘Me, Too!’ from arising years after the incidents occurred” is to add a sentence in every employees annual performance review asking them to report any discrimination to HR and then have the employee sign the document.
“If the employee does not contact HR, you have a record from that employee that s/he witnessed no discrimination, harassment or retaliation,” Hagan wrote. “As more and more employees are asked this question and do not contact HR, you begin to have groups, then sections, then whole departments that are unanimously reported by their employees as being free of discrimination, harassment or retaliation.”
Robert Henneke of TPPF is representing the plaintiffs. It is unclear if the Dallas City Attorney’s office will hire outside counsel to defend it in the litigation.
Conservative law organizations also have sued the cities of Austin and San Antonio to stop similar ordinances from taking effect.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has joined critics of the city ordinances in advocating that state laws supercede efforts by local towns and counties to pass such ordinances.
Independent legal experts say the legal arguments by Paxton and other Republican groups is puzzling because traditionally political conservatives have long advocated that such regulatory questions should be decided at the local government level instead rather than by state officials or federal authorities.